UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Patricia Leavy, an independent scholar and writer whose work continues to expand the boundaries of arts-based research, will present a lecture titled "Telling Truthful Stories Through Fiction and Visual Art: An Example of Arts-Based Research" at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25, in the Palmer Museum of Arts' Palmer Lipcon Auditorium. Leavy's presentation is part of the Penn State School of Visual Arts' John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series.
Leavy is a best-selling author, women’s studies expert, and internationally recognized leader in arts-based and qualitative research. She is widely considered the world’s most visible proponent of arts-based research as a means of making research publicly accessible.
After receiving several prestigious awards and fellowships, Leavy earned her doctorate in sociology at Boston College in 2002. Leavy was a tenured associate professor of sociology at Stonehill College from 2002 to 2012, where she also served as founding director of the Gender Studies Program and the chairperson of the Department of Sociology and Criminology. In 2012, she left academia to focus her full-time efforts on her work as an author, independent researcher and public intellectual.
A prolific author, Leavy’s 18 published books include "The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research" (Oxford University Press, 2014) and "Gender & Pop Culture: A Text Reader," which she co-edited (Sense Publishers, 2014). In 2015 Leavy was announced as the youngest recipient of the Special Career Award given by the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. The award recognizes her entire body of work and honors her advancement of qualitative and arts-based research.
For complete details about the John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series, which are available free of charge and open to the public, as well as an entire listing of events, visit http://sova.psu.edu/anderson.